{"id":5481,"date":"2013-02-02T09:37:30","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T13:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/?p=5481"},"modified":"2020-01-21T18:54:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T22:54:10","slug":"how-would-you-like-your-graphic-design-you-may-pick-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/2013\/02\/02\/how-would-you-like-your-graphic-design-you-may-pick-two\/","title":{"rendered":"How would you like your graphic design? (You may pick two)."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"graphic<\/a><\/p>\n

These days you\u2019re really lucky if you get two. This is a humorous approach to the magical solutions to the business problems so many clients want and have convinced themselves actually exist (these clients want all three of the big circles).\u00a0 Clients who are desperate for new business and don\u2019t want to wait.\u00a0 Clients who are not business savvy. There are plenty of service providers out there who cater to the magical solutions (mind you, they don\u2019t get results, they just cater).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not one of them.<\/p>\n

I was just interviewed by a potential client who has a service business.\u00a0 She wanted half a dozen new clients in two months or less. Someone told her she could achieve this through hiring a resource to fix or improve the SEO on her website.\u00a0 And maybe moving the website over to WordPress which has a fairly impressive (and free) SEO scheme that comes with websites and blogs that are created there. \u00a0The client was all set to click her heels and say \u201cthere\u2019s no place like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then she\u00a0 met me.\u00a0 And I presented reality.\u00a0\u00a0 Uh oh.\u00a0 Reality like SEO is part of a larger strategy to get attention.\u00a0 A strategy which might include blogging, being published and referenced online, doing your own social networking. Next I explained that moving your existing website over to WordPress is not a simple migration process. Sure, you have all the templates, but I explained you still needed to have a designer work on it for you and you need a strategy of how to present your information in the new format (with many more choices of options). Reality like there\u2019s no magic bullet.\u00a0 And no designer on earth makes Dorothy shoes.\u00a0 And that maybe, just maybe, her goals were a tad unrealistic.<\/p>\n

She really didn\u2019t want to hear this.\u00a0 Oh she was polite alright but I knew what she was thinking \u2013 she couldn\u2019t hide her disbelief that she couldn\u2019t just push one button and make it all happen.<\/p>\n

How to separate the magical wishers from the business <\/span><\/p>\n

So knowing this, I moved on to the deal closer or breaker items that I use to weed out shoppers who want a magical solution as opposed to the real business world which I operate in.\u00a0 I said I would send along my standard contract (where the client agrees to provide me with the information I need to do my job and also agrees to pay me and I agree to do my job within the time frame and estimate I provide).<\/p>\n

And I also said I would charge for my estimate.\u00a0 It takes time and strategic thinking to figure out how to solve the problem so you can estimate each item that will need to be done \u2013 this is called work product. The estimate is part of the solution (or roadmap) to the project.\u00a0 So I\u2019m working to create the estimate but I also know if I give the person an estimate for free, then I\u2019ve done the hard work of figuring out how to get the results they need. They can then take my estimate and hire someone else (without a strategic brain) to execute it.\u00a0 This is the second reason I charge for my estimates \u2013 to avoid this situation.<\/p>\n

A day later, I got a very nice thank you note and was told the prospect wanted to interview lots of other people.\u00a0 I have likewise replied very politely and wished them the best.<\/p>\n

At some point I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve been on each side of this relationship. \u00a0No matter what side of the equation you find yourself on, make sure you don\u2019t succumb to the magical thinking mindset.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>
\nShe is the author of Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These days you\u2019re really lucky if you get two. This is a humorous approach to the magical solutions to the business problems so many clients want and have convinced themselves actually exist (these clients want all three of the big circles).\u00a0 Clients who are desperate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"post-templates\/post-middle-column.php","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8577],"tags":[23479,23471,8576,8579,6534,23478,38568],"class_list":["post-5481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-small-business","tag-clients","tag-contracts","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-graphic-design","tag-projects","tag-seo","tag-small-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1v7EM-1qp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}